Friday, 29 May 2009

Next up on my series of posts about ECA illustrators is Mr Tobias Cook. You know how some people make work that you just can't get your head around? Well thats Toby. I am in awe of his skills on a wacom tablet; the way that he manages to get light to look like real like and the way his colours are so rich, far deeper than your average photoshop colour job. To me he should be illustrating Haruki Murukami novels, or something similarly strange and interestingly clinical.

Thursday, 28 May 2009

OK this is the first of my posts on my classmates graduating from ECA this year. Every day from now until the show I'll post one of the 09 graduates i've been sharing a studio with for the past three years for your persual. And first up is (alphabetical order).....

Ursula Cheng. Ta da! Ursula is queen of acid brights, collage and layered paintwork. Her work combines super cute with super sinister with hundreds of tiny details that mean you can look at her work for ages and always spot new details. Have a look at her site and be sure to check out her awesome hotdog project.

Thursday, 21 May 2009

Urgh. I had fully intended to be ridiculously relaxed during the gap between hand-in and the degree show opening but I have loads to do. Thus the blogging halt. Anyway I'm having a little break (and watching Gilmore Girls) so I thought I'd post some of the nice things I've been saving up for a while.

A Picture With A Smile (And Perhaps A Tear) is a project by Anna Emilia Laitinen and Samuele Bastianello and its really beautiful. Every day they post an illustration inspired by a song; above is Dirty Three's Authentic Celestial Music.

Check out 100 abandoned houses. A project by Photographer Kevin Bauman. There are some real treats in there.

Sunday, 17 May 2009

Thursday night was the opening of Story Motel at Owl & Lion here in Edinburgh. 50+ artists from pretty much everywhere made an edition of 25 zines which are for sale at the lovely wee gallery. Mine is in there, as is Jez's and host of other really awesome folk (michael kirkham, jaako pallasvuo, Scott Balmer and edward mcgowan to name but four). Anyway if you're not able to get to the gallery all the zines are for sale online here . So check them out. Please and thankyou.(photos by Jez)

Saturday, 16 May 2009

Sooo..the show is up! At last! Marking and so on happens very soon and it opens to the public on June 13th and runs till the 23rd. If you're in Scotland, NAY if you're in the UK, I strongly suggest you find your way to Edinburgh to check it out because it's really good. Everyone's stuff is wonderful..seriously...there's not a duff one in the bunch! In the run up to the show I'm going to do a post on all my classmates' work so you can see what a talented bunch I shared my studio with.

P.S Thanks for the kind words on my new site everyone. There's a bit more work to be added very soon so be sure to check back later.

Monday, 11 May 2009

My website is down for a few days for a complete overhaul. It will be back on Friday (i hope) with a healthy handful of brand new work and a bit of a general facelift. In the meantime I'm hanging my degree show as of wednesday and then on Friday I'm done with college (well sort of...actually not really at all to be honest)!

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Its been a bit quiet here recently what with preparation for degree show hang (next wednesday). Along with finishing up my projects and framing things and so on I've also just finished a tiny zine for Owl & Lion gallery's upcoming exhibition 'Story Motel'. Its linked to my Bury My Heart project (which you'll see more of very soon) and features more Native American drawings and so on. Some might be for sale soon.

I also got to see the ECA graduate fashion show today (albeit from the balcony with the rest of the students and not in the audience with everyone else) and it was great. Its always so inspiring to see the show and usually I leave wishing I could make clothes as beautiful as what I've just seen and this year was no exception.

Friday, 1 May 2009

We had to move all our stuff out of the studio today so that the degree show structure could be put up. Its sort of sad that we won't all be working on one place anymore. Sigh. Above are some 'illustration studio best bits'. Moving out of the studio also means its also officially two weeks until we are done! We start hanging our shows in a week and half and by friday it'll all be over. After that I'll be working on some new stuff for the degree show shop and tweaking my exhibition a bit before it opens to the world on June 12th. Eek! I'm pretty excited, it's going to be ace to see everyones work up and finished! In the meantime I have to start framing. Urgh.